Officer Steve Smith said “driving defensively” is one of the most important factors in riding a motorcycle.

Smith has ridden motorcycles for about 20 years, the past five of which were for the Redlands Police Department.

The best motorcyclists, Smith said, take their safety into their own hands.

“You really have to take that second look,” he said. “Because other drivers aren’t going to do that for you.”

More motorcyclists are either driving defensively or finding new ways to be safe. For the first time in 11 years, motorcycle fatalities were down both statewide and across the nation.

The number of motorcycle deaths in the state decreased by 29.6 percent, from 560 in 2008 to 394 in 2009, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. The drop ends a streak that reached a 175 percent increase at its peak.

And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in September that motorcycle fatalities across the country last year decreased for the first time in more than a decade – dropping to 4,462 in 2009 from 5,312 in 2008.

Officials with the California Office of Traffic Safety said reasons for the declines are many.

“The downturn in the economy is one factor among many. Gasoline sales dropped by 4 percent from 2007 to 2008, but have stayed flat since then. Motorcycle registrations have dropped nearly 2 percent. Automobiles have more safety engineered into them,” according to an OTS news release.

Officer Jeff Briggs, with the CHP’s Rancho Cucamonga office, said constant education of the public and motorcycle riders has contributed to the decline in deaths.

The California Motorcycle Safety Program has also made an effort to train more riders, and Caltrans is working to alert drivers of motorcycles on the road.

A federal study is under way at the Oklahoma Transportation Center, supervised by Oklahoma State University, to determine why motorcyclists crash.

The last study of this kind was published in 1981 and conducted in California.